rel="nofollow" href="#fb3_img_img_ca8128fb-4ba6-54a0-871c-44f37e3c91c1.jpg" alt="image"/>
Keep your main bearings and caps sorted for further inspection.
Now that the crankshaft is removed from the block, find a clean safe place to store it before bringing it to the machine shop for inspection.
Inspection of the old rod and main bearings can provide good clues about the condition of the crank and rods. Excessive wear, off-center wear, and circumferential scoring can help diagnose what is going to be wrong before we even begin to measure. This information can help your machinist pinpoint areas that may require extra attention.
The old bearings can often provide useful information. These indicate that the engine was rebuilt in the 1970s, and that the crank journal has already been ground .010 undersized.
Remove Camshaft
To remove the cam you must first remove the front thrust plate. These are retained by two fasteners, which are often large Phillips-head screws. You must acquire and use the Phillips number-4 bit to remove these screws; anything else will round them out and create a bunch more work.
Once the thrust plate comes off, the cam will simply slide out through the front. By leaving this as the last major item to remove, we can guide it out with our hands since no other components are in the way, which is much easier than trying to pull it out the front without any support.
In our shop we made a cam removal tool using threaded rod and a long piece of aluminum. Even a simple long bolt with the proper thread pitch can be helpful here.
This handmade tool makes cam removal and installation much easier without the worry of marking up bearings or journals.
Finally, before heading to the machine shop, we finish off a few details. The rear cam plug gets knocked out using a long stick (a cut-off piece of broomstick works amazingly well). Notice that the plug goes in backward compared to a freeze plug: very important. Freeze plugs can be removed by punching an off-center hole in them and leveraging them out with a big screwdriver or a slide hammer. That same slide hammer will make quick work of the press-in-type oil gallery plugs as well. Threaded-in gallery plugs can be removed with the appropriate tools, along with application of heat and lubricants. These can be really tough and sometimes end up requiring drills, taps, and foul language, but they do come out.
Cam bearings are normally removed by the machine shop, using the same type of tool used to install them. They are easy to knock out if you rent or borrow the right equipment. Do not try to remove them yourself with simple punches or you risk damaging the cam tunnel bore and scrapping the block.
Now we are ready to take our parts to the machine shop for individual inspection, cleaning, and reconditioning as necessary or desired. Subsequent chapters focus on each component separately until we start putting things back together. Accordingly, you will find me doing some assembly work then backing up a bit to go over the next component in the process before moving ahead. I recommend that you read over the entire book before beginning the job to best familiarize yourself with the tasks ahead.
CHAPTER 2
THE ENGINE BLOCK
We now have our engine block taken down to its bare essentials: a casting without any parts bolted to it. This is the point where we can decide if it is truly a good candidate to move forward with. A few fairly simple inspections and we are off to the machine shop, where things will get a lot more intensive.
As with other processes throughout the build, you can do this work in many ways, depending on your experience, the tools on hand, your budget, and your desired results. Plenty of engines have been successfully rebuilt with the most basic of tools, done completely in a home garage. Just do not expect such a low-budget package to compete with a professionally machined and reworked combination in terms of power or longevity. Keep your expectations in line with your abilities and your finances and you will be happy with the end result.
Engine Block Inspection
When we inspect a block before machining, we are usually looking for damage that cannot be repaired or cannot be repaired at a cost that can be justified. The cost versus value is very different depending on a number of factors.
Common issues include the need for cylinder sleeves due to excessive wear or physical damage. You may also find cracks from freezing or from prior component failure. Significant corrosion damage is possible in certain engines, such as raw water–cooled marine applications or castings that have sat outside for an extended time. Damaged bolt hole threads are common.
A
